The Forum recommends that Governments provide public water and sanitation systems to the villages and rural areas where indigenous people live, and control the pollution of rivers and streams affected by pollution from such toxic chemicals as pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and industrial waste. The Forum also recommends Governments to create programmes to clean up the rivers and streams that have already been polluted and to ban further pollution by agribusiness and industries.
The Permanent Forum acknowledges the progress made on its recommendation to FAO and WHO to revise the International Code of Conduct on Pesticide Management to include Indigenous Peoples’ views. The Permanent Forum urges FAO and WHO to develop guidance notes on the risk of pesticide use in Indigenous Peoples’ territories, in consultation with Indigenous Peoples.
The Permanent Forum recommends that Governments and States promote the creation of conditions for indigenous peoples that will enable them to maintain the forests in their traditional way and conserve their cultural identity, with priority accorded to indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation, strengthening their capacities and highlighting the value of ancestral knowledge related to native forests. The Forum further recommends that the traditional knowledge and traditional forest management practices and governance systems of indigenous peoples for the protection and use of their forests be recognized in all forest policies and climate-related forest initiatives.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) advance data and research on the challenges that indigenous women and girls face in realizing their right to bodily autonomy and the right to be free from violence, including reproductive coercion and in birthing practices. Furthermore, the Permanent Forum invites UNFPA to prepare a study on indigenous women’s bodily autonomy, with the participation of indigenous women, and to present its findings at the twenty-third session of the Permanent Forum, to be held in 2024.
The Forum recommends that the Working Group on Indigenous Populations undertake a study on genocidal and ethnocidal practices perpetrated on indigenous peoples, including programmes for sterilization of indigenous women and girls, the use of indigenous communities as subjects for nuclear testing or storage of radioactive waste and the testing of unapproved drugs on indigenous children and peoples.
The Permanent Forum requests the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity to complete its work on the draft code of ethical conduct for the recognition and protection of indigenous intellectual property and cultural heritage, taking into account the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as a minimum standard, with a view to adopting the code at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties in 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity.eas.